Bombay High Court Orders SC Certificate Issuance to Rashmi Barve Amid 'Witch Hunt' Allegations

The Bombay High Court has directed the issuance of a Scheduled Caste 'chambhar' certificate to Rashmi Barve, which was earlier invalidated in what the court termed a 'witch hunt.' The court criticized the Caste Scrutiny Committee for acting under administrative pressure and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh on the panel.

The Bombay High Court's Nagpur bench on Tuesday directed the scrutiny committee to issue a Scheduled Caste 'chambhar' certificate within a week to Congress leader Rashmi Barve, noting her certificate was illegally invalidated through a ''witch hunt'' earlier.

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Barve was nominated by Congress to contest from Ramtek Lok Sabha constituency before her caste certificate was rejected by the caste scrutiny committee in March noting that she had obtained the Scheduled Caste chambhar certificate fraudulently.

Barve challenged the Nagpur Caste Scrutiny Committee's order and the one passed by the Returning Officer of the Ramtek parliamentary constituency, rejecting her nomination for the Lok Sabha polls.

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The HC observed that the mandatory rules governing the field and even the principles of natural justice of affording a reasonable opportunity were thrown to the wind, in order to reject the caste claim of the petitioner, to ensure that she couldn't contest the parliamentary elections.

''The impugned decision, which is a result of such shenanigans cannot be permitted to stand and specifically so when there is material found in the independent enquiry by the Vigilance Cell to indicate that the caste claim of the petitioner is genuine,'' it said.

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''We, therefore, quash and set aside the impugned decision of the Caste Scrutiny Committee and direct that it shall issue a validity certificate to the petitioner of she belonging to the Scheduled Caste 'chambhar', within a period of one week from today,'' the bench ordered.

(With inputs from agencies.)